Uropi is an International Auxiliary language created by Joel Landais. It is a synthesis of all the common points that can be found in Indo-European languages. Its main characteristics are simplicity, internationality and transparency

People sometimes compare Uropi words to Volapük: there is an enormous différence. Volapük words were borrowed from natural languages like English, but they were distorted so that they might comply with the very strict phonetic and grammatical rules of the language. For instance, no word can end with S because it is the plural mark, so that the final s in "ros" (rose = Uropi roz, but Volapük uses s for S and Z), is replaced with L. Besides, R doesn't exist in Volapük because the Chinese are not supposed to be able to pronounce it; so the r in [roz] is also replaced with an L. Thus we end up with lol for "rose", which has nothing to do with the original word.

Some others also say that Uropi words cannot be recognized at first sight. This is sometimes true, although it isn't always the case (for example: ric, linga, vord, naturi, adapto, strig, gramatik, regle, mark, pluràl, esisto, replaso, can be understood immediately). However, some Uropi words seem to be wishing to acquaint us with the mysterious links existing between dozens of terms belonging to many different languages. Uropi words are both slightly mysterious and relatively familiar.

To learn Uropi, it is not enough to "learn stupidly", as the French say; we also need to understand: learning alone is not satisfactory, trying to understand is much better, for each word tells us a story. Let's take the verb diko(to show), for example: you cannot understand it immediately as would be the case with "montro" or "mostro". But who can recognize the latter terms ? French people or Italians, but neither Spaniards who say "encontrar", nor English speakers who say "show", nor Germans who say "zeigen".Diko, on the other hand, is vaguely familiar to us, because it makes us think of indicate, indiquer, indicar, indicare… May be Germans won't recognize the verb zeigen though it is exactly the same word: D has become Z as often in German: decem, dix, diez = zehn, dent = Zahn, due =zwei. Diko stems from an old Indo-European root *deiḱ- (to show), which gave modern Greek δείχνω "deikhnô" (to show), as well as Sanskrit diśati (he shows), Hindi dikhāna, Bengali dēkhānō, Marathi dākhavā (to show), and Latin dico (to say). This root also gave birth to the word finger, in Latin digitus, the part of the body we use to show, and, according to Merritt Ruhlen it is one of his 27 world roots: (tik). In Germanic languages, apart from zeigen, it also gave birth to German Zeichen, Dutch teken, Da, Nor tegn, Swe tecken, Eng token = sign.

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Jun dansora in de Thar vustia, India

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Therefore, learning diko, you do not only learn one Uropi word, but you also discover the story of this word, you meet at least 19 other cognates in 19 different languages. You learn, you discover, you understand… or rather, you discover, you understand, you learn. Learning Uropi, is like reading an explorer's book telling the story of his discoveries in faraway countries, where he meets mysterious populations speaking strange languages. I have indeed explored some forty ancient and modern Indo-European languages, as well as other languages which could, over the centuries, have had exchanges with them, like Finno-Ugric languages, for example, and among them, I discovered (as many linguists did before me), hundreds of links, not to say thousands, and sometimes the strangest links. For example, the Uropi word has (house), that comes from Germanic: Haus, house, huis, hus, and at the same time form Romance: casa, casă, corresponds exactly to Hungarian ház (house), although Hungarian is not an Indo-European language. Where does this Hungarian word come from ? Is it a loan word ?

Those "mysterious links" may be due to a common heritage (Indo-European roots), to borrowings from Greek or Latin for instance, to casual encounters or still undiscovered kinships: isn't there an extremely old relationship between Indo-European and Ural-Altaic languages ? (the famous nostratic hypothesis).

But let us take other examples:

The verb koeglo (compare): it is impossible to recognize it immediately as would be the case for "komparo"; you have to analyse it: prefix ko- (with, together = con-, com-, co-) and egli (equal). Egli has a double origin: Romance, from Latin æqualis that gave Fr égal, It uguale, Sp igual, Eng equal …, (which account for the eg-l) and Germanic, from German gleich, Dutch gelijk, Da lig, Swe lika, Nor lik, (which account for the -gli). Thus, koeglo (ko + egli) is exactly built like Latin comparo (cum = with + par = equal), but also like its equivalents in Baltic and Slavic languages: Latvian: sa-līdzināt (sa- = com-, līdzīgs = equal), Russian s-ravnit'(s- = com-, ravniy = equal), Czech s-rovnávat, Cro s-ravniti, Bul s-ravniavam…

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Anmidim = immediately.

We learn the French and English "immédiat" and "immediate" without analysing them, because we are used to Romance languages. But when we want to study a Germanic or Slavic language or Greek, we need to analyse the words, otherwise we cannot understand anything, and learning those languages becomes too difficult.

The German word: unmittelbar can be analysed as follows: -bar, adjective ending, "Mittel" = middle, in the middle, and un- negative prefix = un-, in-,im-. This adjective means direct, without intermediary, therefore instant, immediate, which is the precise meaning of the words "im-médiat, im-mediate", from Latin in- and medius = middle. Let us now use this analysis in other languages: in Dutch on-middel-lijk, Norwegian and Danish: u-middel-bar, Swedish: o-medel-bar, as well as in Greek: a-mesos (a- = im- + mesos = middle), in Armenian an-mijak-an (mijak = average, middle). The Uropi word anmidi(m) may well not be recognized at first sight, but once you have analysed it, it enables you to understand its equivalents in 14 languages. This doesn't mean, of course, that you have learnt those languages, but that they will no longer be totally "foreign" to you, and that … you may feel like learning them.

These are a few root-words, which may not be Latin or Romance but are very international all the same.

Del, prodèl = business, advantage

The word del comes from Russian delo = business, deal, from the verb delat'= to do. The link between these two terms is perfectly clear: you can find it in French between faire and af-faire, and in Italian between fare and af-fare. But del also comes from English deal meaning "transaction, business, contract" and from the verb to deal with. The Uropi question Ov ka del je ?(What's up ? What is it about ?) corresponds to Russian v chyom delo ? (lit. "in what (is) the matter ?"). Those Russian terms delo, delat' stem from the Indo-European root *dheh1- which meant "to put, to place" originally, as in modern Greek thetô and in Lithuanian dėti; but later on, also came to mean "to do", as in Latin facio, English do, Dutch doen, Ger tun, Rus delat', Cze dělat, Slo delati and in Uropi deto. The English word deal, on the other hand, stems from the I-E root *dail-, to divide, to share, that can be found in Ger Teil, Dutch deel, Da, Swe, Nor del = "part". In Uropi Del has given prodèl (= advantage: from pro- = forward, in front: the thing that makes us advance, move forward, pro-gress), exactly as in Norwegien, and Danish for-del (lit before (forward) + part), Swe för-del, Dutch voor-deel, Ger Vor-teil. Rudèl (drawback), on the contrary, is the thing that makes you move back (= ru-vado, from ru- = back) or stay behind (ru-stajo), (cf Ger Nachteil, Dutch nadeel, Swe nackdel = drawback).

Therefore it is quite clear that learning and analysing Uropi words not only gives you the mental gymnastics that is most useful to learn foreign languages actively, but also enables you to discover many things in numerous languages. You can discover the mysterious links existing between the words of the different Indo-European languages, so we can say that Uropi "creates a link between languages", as the Uropi motto says "To create a link between the peoples". Of course, you can also learn Uropi "stupidly", if you like, without asking yourselves any questions, but I am convinced that the mysterious side of many words in the language will inevitably arouse your curiosity, will incite you to ask "Why is that so?", and thus will take you off to explore the our common linguistic history, that of Uropi and the other Indo-European languages.

I think that, similarly to what happened naturally in our languages, constructing an IAL should be both diachronic and synchronic, i.e it should be based on the history of the vocabulary and syntax, as well as their geographical extension through languages. I am convinced that we cannot be content with a purely Romance vocabulary, for instance, even if it has been sprinkled with a few loan words from Sino-Tibetan, from Semitic, Ural-Altaic or Bantu languages.